Tag Archives: shopping

March 13, 2012 · 12:52 am

This is how much advertisers want you to buy things

Fun fact of the day: An orange “Buy” button is statistically going to sell more of whatever than a button of any other color. For example:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

The Daily Grommet

Gap

Once I started looking, I couldn’t stop seeing the big orange buttons everywhere. Science claims that orange is the second most visible (?) color after red, but red has all sorts of horrid negative connotations. You could see a dozen red “Buy” buttons and all your brain would recognize is “No!” “Stop!” “Don’t!” “Beware!” or “Danger!” Consquently, web designers and UX experts (user experience) around the world have collectively buried us all under a pile of orange buttons.

It just goes to show how much the tiniest details matter to advertisers. I once worked on a photo shoot that involved a kitchen scene. We spent literal days plotting out the shape of the water glasses on the table (“It has to be clear they’re not for booze”), what type of juice was in the refrigerator in the background (juice has weird racial connotations), and whether the model’s fake wedding ring should be silver or gold.

It seems preposterous, but the brands that put this kind of thought into their advertising do so much volume that even if each of those decisions affects one tenth of one percent of their customers, it’s worthwhile.

Think about that next time you pick up some gum “on a whim” at the cash register. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A WHIM.

Related Post: Kotex and the Kardashians.

Related Post: How Amy Poehler got me to donate to Planned Parenthood.

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December 30, 2011 · 3:54 pm

Popstars and Bridesmaids

My first “real” job was in an adorable little toy store in the heart of the pretty adorable town where I grew up. I learned to gift wrap anything (including, once, a hula hoop), but mostly we just played with the display versions of the latest board games.

To this day, I love a good toy store, and so I found myself browsing one recently for no other reason than to see what had changed since my heyday. This is what I found:

I didn’t realize that “popstars” had edged in on the venerable paper doll tradition, nor that bridesmaids was even part of the vernacular of little girls. And since when are bridesmaid dresses ever something anyone celebrates for their style?

I did a little digging after I got home, just to see whether this was all Usborne had to offer, or whether this particular toy store was just short-stocked on the non-Princess sticker books.

The subbrand is called Sticker Dolly Dressing, and there are 21 versions available. I was super pleased to see a “Dream Jobs” title featuring a doctor and an explorer of some sort, as well as a “Sports Girls.” The rest of the list was “Ballerinas,” “Ballerinas and Dolls,” “Dancers,” “Movie Stars,” “Popstars and Movie Stars,” “Weddings,” “Weddings and Bridesmaids,” “Princesses,” “Fairies,” “Princesses and Fairies,” and something called “Fancy Dress.”

Individually, none of these is particularly problematic. It’s not as if they have “Hot Mess,” “Reality TV Star,” or “Playboy Model.” But, collectively, the bottom line speaks with one voice, and it is saying “Be Pretty!” On the other hand, the boy stickers have “Pirates,” “Knights” and “Soldiers,” so maybe their message is “Be Violent!” Is that any better?

Related Post: How to buy toys for girls that don’t involve bustiers.

Related Post: The 1998 “Ruby” Campaign took the Barbie model in a different direction.

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December 15, 2011 · 5:21 pm

Birkins: “They Hold My World Together”

Yesterday, I posted a list of my favorite things I read on the internet. Well here’s one more: “Outfits That Walk Between 2 Worlds” aka The Muffie Potter Aston Fashion Diaries, from The New York Times. The following “colors” are mentioned:

nutmeg-colored, mustard, camel, blush, burgundy, cream, off-white, camel-colored, taupe, taupe, off-white, taupe, loden green (WTF?), saddle-color, camel-colored, khaki, saddle-colored, beige, creamy white, cream, cream, silver

And this: “I have everything in my Birkins. They hold my world together.” And this: “I don’t like a lot of jingle-jangle going on.”

In the spirit of Muffie Potter Aston, whose name I feel requires repeating, my own “What I Wore” for the last two days:

Wednesday, December 14: I rose from my bed sporting the softest, most luxurious dark blueberry sweatpants bestitched with the symbol of the esteemed University of Michigan, an ebony camisole, and a heather and navy striped robe sporting the imprint “pink” across the ass. For the office, I usually aim for a palette of “not jacked up” and this day was like no other. I selected a gray and black knit sweater dress from the brand “The tag was ripped out when I bought it for $14″ and chocolate, faux-leather DSW boots with artfully scuffed heels. To top it off, I added a pewter bracelet in the shape of a fork, purchased from one of New York’s most respected illegal street vendors. For the respite of the gym, I changed into one of my many charity t-shirts, this one from WBEZ’s annual phone drive, midnight capris, and a mustard sports bra with only minor fraying.

Thursday, December 15: I rose this morning after a restful sleep wearing the same delightfully mismatched loungewear as yesterday (collected from the floor, of course). I carefully selected an eggplant and cream striped cotton button-down from Target’s 2011 fall line, medium wash denim from Target’s 2011 fall line, and slate gray flats from the red-label (50% off) collection at DSW. I accessorized with a scarlet pashmina, fingerless gloves, and a poop-colored puffy jacket. Oh, and my sleek black laptop bag.

Related Post: In all seriousness, this is whose style I legit covet.

Related Post: Notes on American Apparel’s Next Big Thing Contest.

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December 8, 2011 · 8:05 pm

Truth

Have you ever seen a truer diagram?

From Jessica Hagy at This is Indexed. She’s so smart. She has a book, too, and I’m trying to figure out who I can buy it for. Any takers?

One of my holiday goals this year is to buy exclusively from individuals or small businesses. I’m avoiding Amazon/Target/Kmart/Walmart/B&N as long as possible. The rest of the year, I have to be hyper-aware of cost, which is why the discount chains serve me so well. But during Christmas, if only for a few weeks, I’d rather spend a few extra dollars and support my neighbors than get FREE SUPER TRIPLE AWESOME SHIPPING MEMBERSHIP SAVINGS from a chain. I thought I might have to make an exception for an audiobook I wanted to order, since my local book store doesn’t carry audiobooks, but they ordered it for me!

Related Post: The This is Indexed guide to bad movies.

Related Post: The This is Indexed guide to Hollywood starlets and eating habits.

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November 3, 2011 · 2:30 pm

Christmas on Layaway

We’re entering the era of Christmas commercials and we’ve got two solid months to go, so let’s settle in. The first concerted effort that I’ve seen in this arena comes from Kmart, and boy do I hate it. It’s not sexist*, it features no women in bikinis, no men-are-dumb stereotypes, and no icky racial garbage. I couldn’t find it online, so you’ll just have to sit in front of the Food Network for a couple of hours and wait.

So what’s not to like? The commercials feature Kmart’s holiday layaway policy, which reminds consumers that they can buy all the things they can’t afford. Each spot shows a different woman fantasizing about all the things she’d buy if only Kmart had layaway, before a patiently waiting employee interrupts her reverie to tell her that such a program exists! Hoorah!

I’m getting persnickety here, I’m well aware, but in the middle of Occupy Wall Street, huge unemployment numbers, and a debt crisis nationwide, it seems downright irresponsible to encourage consumers to spend beyond their means. Advertising has never been known for social responsibility, but in this belt-tightening window of time, it seems an odd and strategically dangerous choice.

On the other hand, AdWeek says it’s doing really well, so what do I know. I suppose I’m not the target audience, not ever having faced a Christmas worried about gift-buying. And I guess it would be pretty counterproductive for Kmart to tell its customers, “Hey, wouldn’t it be fun to make each other Christmas presents this year?”

*Unless you count the baseline assumption of all advertisers that women are the purchasers for the whole family as sexist. That assumption, though, is a Focus Group Truth, so take it up with American families and their division of labor, not KMart.

Related Post: I really don’t know how to shop anymore.

Related Post: How I wish the showdown between MA Senator Scott Brown and consumer protection advocate Elizabeth Warren had gone down.

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October 25, 2011 · 2:50 pm

Make-up Scavenger

Ha. As if.

I’m a make-up scavenger. My “collection,” if you can call it that, includes several tubes of chapstick wrapped with promo copy of local banks and fundraisers, a few Clinique relics that came with my mother’s kits ten years ago, the vestiges of several Halloween costumes, and a few hand-me-downs from better equipped friends. I don’t think I own a single item that I picked up in a store, decided I wanted, and purchased. Not even nail polish.

I feel like I missed out on some essential pieces of girl-knowledge, the ability to choose a palette of shadows, to know what an eye primer is, to discern quality from junk. Then I get irritated with myself for attributing too much weight to what is, essentially, a super heteronormative view point in which women are supposed to pay big bucks to make themselves look pretty for the benefit of men. That’s not a tradition I really want to be a part of, nor an industry to which I really want to give my dollars. Except when I do.

This weekend I spent more money on make-up in one fell swoop than I have in the last five years combined. By American beauty-spending standards, I’m still in the “mere pennies” category, but it felt like a lot in the moment. I was with a friend, in a Georgetown Sephora, and I was suddenly possessed by the desire to have more at my disposal than cast-offs.

It felt like a change, like a step closer to grown-up land. I’m not just a scavenger of make-up. I approach most commodities that way, furniture, food, clothing, books. Probably half of what I own was owned by someone else first. Sometimes I go to work without packing lunch, assuming I’ll find a leftover bagel from a breakfast event, or the remains of a fruit salad. Part of it is certainly frugality, but part of it is also this inability to recognize that I’m at a stage in my life where I can by new things, where the $6 saved by the stale bagel isn’t going to break the bank. I haven’t full transitioned.

So my make-up purchase this weekend felt like a step towards the adult mentality of investment (in self, in professionalism, in quality), instead of my typical scanvenger mindset. In that sense, I’m pretty pleased. But it also felt a bit like a resigned sigh, like an acknowledgment that part and parcel of being a professional, adult woman is some sort of proficiency with face-paint.

Related Post: I don’t know how to shop anymore.

Related Post: Too pretty for math? It’s math!

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May 3, 2011 · 2:56 pm

“1000% Cute”

Last week, both Sociological Images and Jezebel reported on the new Kotex Tween spin-off, a line of pads and panty liners for girls eight and up. I like the idea of demystifying menstruation, even if that involves glitter and sparkles. It’s a fact that girls are getting their first periods younger and younger, and creating products for them is only responding to this trend, not encouraging it (I’m not sure if a biological process can even be “encouraged.”)

Crappy cell-phone shot of Tween bras in Marshalls

So when I spotted these bras (right) in the kids section at Marshalls (let me clarify that by “kids section” I do not mean “juniors” or “teen,” but barbie/plastic puzzles/stuffed animals kids) I thought the Kotex logic might apply. Girls are developing breasts younger and younger, and products should be designed to ease the awkward transition for eight- and nine-year-olds.

Then I changed my mind. Here’s why: period products aren’t sexualized, but bras are. These tween products are decked out with lace trim, bows and padding. They are essentially just mini-versions of grown-up bras. Grown-up bras are, courtesy of Victoria’s Secret and all her copycat offshoots, designed for sex appeal. Sex appeal is all well and good if you’re an adult, but not when you’re nine.

But come on. If you’re eight and you need padding in your bra…. you don’t need a bra! Eight-year-olds should not want bigger boobs. And if they do (oh, I don’t know, because the BratzPack tells them they should), parents need to step in big time.

When I was in fifth grade playing at recess, I noticed on the next swing over another girl in my class had started wearing a bra. It was a white sports bra, and I knew because I could just see the outline through her t-shirt. She was playing on the swings, leaping off the seat at the pinnacle of its arc and landing gracefully in the grass.

When you’re 8, that’s what a bra is far; it’s an enabling device, letting you keep having kid fun even when you’re body is skipping ahead. If you want to print hearts on a training bra to make it more appealing to little girls, fine. But leave out the goddamn padding and VS push-up power. They’re eight.

Related Post: Buying toys for girls is so freaking challenging. Here’s a guide.

Related Post: And here’s a mom who thinks girls dress like prostitutes because she boned too many dudes at Woodstock.

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March 31, 2011 · 2:58 pm

Liberal Navel-Gazing Is So Fun

Buy "American" products made in China to show your dual commitment to patriotism and global commerce

I don’t know how to shop anymore. Target, my usual standby, is under attack for supporting homophobic causes. The Gap (and consequently Banana Republic and Old Navy) is making idiotic patriotic tote-bags… in China. American Apparel is clearly not an option. Neither is Forever 21. Abercrombie is selling push-up bikinis to 7-year-olds (WTF are they pushing up???). If I view my shopping as voicing my opinion in monetary form (which I do), I just honestly don’t know how to buy anything anymore.

I could buy everything on Etsy, where I can see exactly where and to whom my dollars are going. I want this cute halter, but building a wardrobe piece by handmade piece seems impractical and probably prohibitively expensive. I’m occasionally crafty, but I’m not about to pull a my-mom-circa-1974 and make my own clothes. And nudity is a death wish when you live in freezing Chicago (and, you know, because I’d be naked…).

I don’t have a solution. Maybe the solution is to take a chill pill and pick my battles, a la Ariel from OffBeat Home. In this essay, she writes about coming to terms with liberal guilt and hiring a housekeeper:

I tried to compensate for my angst by paying my housekeeper more than she asked, until she finally told me to stop it: when I gave her an extra $20, she felt like she had to clean for an extra hour. I slapped my forehead. FUCK! Liberal guilt is so stupid and insulting to everyone. I’m such an asshole!

I’m not in the market for a cleaning lady (yet), but all of the hemming and hawing about guilt and frustration rings awfully familiar. Does it do any good to gripe about it if in the end I shop at all these places anyway? It clouds my conscience and sucks the fun out of new clothes, but that’s about it. Nothing practical or productive is accomplished by my whining. New plan: stop whining, invest in sewing machine.

Related Post: Another situation where clothing matters… who knew tube tops were code for “rape me”?

Related Post: Speaking of Etsy…non-clothing things you should and shouldn’t buy me.

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